Pertamina to shut its PP plant Indonesia for scheduled turnaround im mid-September

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indonesia's PT Pertamina is in plans to take off-stream its sole polypropylene (PP) plant in Plaju, South Sumatera for a scheduled maintenance in mid-September, 2021, according to CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The outage at the company's 47,000 mt/year of PP plant is expected to begin on 16 September and to last for about 17 days. Thus, this plant is scheduled to resume operations on 3 October, 2021.

Indonesian buyers informed that the producer will not be able to fulfill the contractual obligations during the third and fourth week of September as a result of the overhaul, which is expected to tighten local supply. Yet, buyers are in no rush to secure additional quantities from the spot market due to the persistently soft end-product businesses.

As MRC informed before, Pertamina was forced to take its PP unit in West Java off-line on 26 June, 2020, following an unspecified technical glitch at the upstream RFCC unit that cause a disruption of the propylene feeds. The PP plant was brought back on-line on 7-8 July, 2020. The RFCC unit produces 45,000 tons of propylene annually, while the PP plant has a capacity of 45,000 tons/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) is conducting maintenance works at its new polypropylene (PP) plant in Vietnam, reported CommoPlast with reference to a source close to the producer.

Thus, the 400,000 mtyear of PP plant was shut on 24 August 2021, instead of the initially scheduled date of 17 August, for approximately three weeks. The company decided to postpone the maintenance shutdown at this plant by one week from the previous schedule due to the COVID-19 related lockdown.

Demand in the local Vietnam market has been sluggish due to the COVID-19 outbreak that forced many manufacturing plants to shut down. The condition is not expected to improve in the next couple of weeks, leaving suppliers here under tremendous pressure.

“Due to the delay in the maintenance schedule, we are having extra allocations. The export market is better than the local ground, but shipping is the main issue,” the source added.

As MRC reported earlier, in the third week of September 2020, NSRP restarted its PP unit in Vietnam following a 10 days unscheduled shutdown starting 7 September 2020 due to a persistent technical issue. And this year, NSRP also shut its PP plant in central Vietnam from 30 March to 13 April 2021 for a two-week turnaround due to a technical issue.

We also remind that Vietnam’s Nghi Son oil refinery officially began commercial production from 14 November 2018, following months of tests. The USD9 billion refinery is 35.1% owned by Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1% - by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% - by PetroVietnam and 4.7% - by Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- At least three refineries in Louisiana were starting on Friday to get some power supplies that would enable them to consider restarting operations five days after Hurricane Ida made landfall on the US Gulf Coast, reported Reuters.

Nine refineries were knocked offline by Ida's winds and power losses. The state's largest utility, Entergy Corp, has restored power to about a quarter of affected customers, it said.

Three crude oil refineries near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have begun restarts since being idled by Hurricane Ida, the US Department of Energy said Friday.

The largest, Exxon Mobil Corp’s 520,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge complex, began preparations earlier and on Thursday said it was restarting oil processing. The DOE directed 1.5 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve be provided to Exxon to help alleviate regional fuel shortages caused by Hurricane Ida.

Two other refineries, Placid Refining's 75,000-bpd Port Allen refinery and Delek US Holdings' 80,000-bpd plant in Krotz Springs, could also see power restored soon under Entergy's plan.

Neither Placid nor Delek replied to requests for comment on Friday.

As MC reported earlier, PBF Energy said it was receiving limited power at its 190,000-bpd Chalmette refinery but could not predict when operations could fully resume. A restart could begin over the weekend, people familiar with the matter said.

Besies, power was returning to Marathon Petroleum's 578,000-bpd Garyville refinery and Valero Energy Corp’s 215,000 bpd St. Charles refinery in Norco, GasBuddy.com analyst Patrick De Haan said. A Marathon spokesman said he did not have information immediately available about the refinery.

Valero did not reply to a request for comment.

Phillips 66's Alliance refinery on the Louisiana coast was still being evaluated for damages. Any restart would depend on those assessments and the availability of electricity, it said.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Electrical power was being restored on Thursday night to PBF Energy's 190,000-bpd Chalmette, Louisiana refinery for the first time, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

PBF may begin restarting refinery units over the weekend, the sources said, but the process is expected to be slow as the electrical power supply will be reduced due to damage to the power grid from Hurricane Ida.

A PBF spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

The Chalmette refinery was knocked out by a power outage on Sunday as Hurricane Ida crossed the New Orleans area. PBF had reduced production.

PBF is the second refinery to begin restarting after being knocked out by the hurricane, which was one of the most powerful to strike Louisiana.

As MRC wrote before, ExxonMobil began restarting its Baton Rouge, Louisiana refinery on Tuesday. The US Energy Department authorized the release on Thursday of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil from the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to the Baton Rouge refinery. Exxon spokesperson Julie King said on Thursday because of transportation interruptions, Exxon requested the crude from the SPR for the refinery, which is restarting as utilities are restored.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices rose as a rebound in global demand was widely expected and a slow recovery for the US Gulf Coast export and refining hub from the hurricane earlier this week looked set to deplete stocks further, reported Reuters.

Brent crude futures were up 39 cents, or 0.5%, to USD73.42 a barrel at 1231 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 21 cents or 0.3% at USD70.20 a barrel. Both benchmark oil contracts were largely steady for the week.

About 1.7 million barrels per day of oil production remains shut in the US Gulf of Mexico, with damage to heliports and fuel depots slowing the return of crews to offshore platforms, sources told Reuters.

"The prolonged US Gulf production and Louisiana refining capacity outages, which are bound to carve a bigger hole in the already diminished US oil stockpiles, as well as data showing continued strong domestic fuel demand recovery are supportive factors," said Vandana Hari, energy analyst at Vanda Insights.

Some analysts see room for further price gains amid tightening crude supplies and signs of recovering demand after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, stuck to a plan to add 400,00 barrels per day (bpd) to the market over the next few months.

The United States welcomed the move and pledged to press the exporter club to do more to support economic recovery by unleashing production.

As MRC wrote previously, in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.

We remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC